At first glance, it sounds like a line from that old Sesame Street song. Take a look at the top scorers in the NHL and you’ll see mostly familiar names: Stamkos, Kucherov, Gaudreau, Kopitar, Tarasenko, Matthews and … Couturier? As Big Bird might sing, one of these things is certainly not like the others.

Typecast as a shutdown player for the first six years of his career, Sean Couturier has never scored more than 15 goals or reached the 40-point mark in a single season. But after bugging his coach for more ice time and opportunity, the Philadelphia Flyers centre has emerged as one of the season’s early surprises with 10 goals and 19 points in 16 games.

Well, you and everyone else might be surprised. He sure isn’t.

“I’ve always thought I had the offensive tools to succeed and produce in this league,” Couturier said in a phone interview on Friday. “It was just the situation I was put in throughout my career. Now I’m getting the opportunity to showcase my ability with two of the best in the league.”

No question, playing on a line with Jakub Voracek (21 points) and Claude Giroux (20 points) has helped unlock Couturier’s offensive game. But it’s not like Couturier’s simply along for the ride. Giroux only had 14 goals last year, while Voracek had 20. Whatever they were doing without Couturier wasn’t working. In fact, since joining him, the two players went from a combined minus-39 last season to a plus-14 this year.

“It’s always going to be in me to be reliable on both ends of the ice,” said Couturier, who had a plus-12 rating last year and is a plus-14 so far this season. “But I think the best defence is a good offence. If you can control the puck, it makes it hard for the other team to make plays.”

It’s why Couturier went to Dave Hakstol and the coaching staff last year and asked for a more prominent role.

At the time, the Flyers were on their way to finishing out of the playoffs and Couturier was stranded on the fourth line. He was frustrated. He wanted to do more to try and help the team win. But the coaching staff only thought of him as a defensive specialist.

“I was kind of the odd-man out in the top six,” he said. “I talked to the coach and asked him what he thought of my game and told him what I thought. I didn’t know what I could do to help the team, but we weren’t winning that much so it was a great time to express my frustration.”

Indeed, Couturier was at a crossroads in his career. Though he is in his seventh season in the NHL, it’s easy to forget that he is only 24 years old. He’s still developing, still testing the limits of his potential and defining the player he will become. He just wanted a chance to show what he could do. And with the Flyers selecting centre Nolan Patrick with the No. 2 pick, who has played only nine games this season because of a head injury, there was a fear that he might not get one.

Couturier’s request to play more of an offensive role was not exactly unfounded. The Flyers’ 2011 first-round draft choice — No. 8 overall — had been a top scorer in junior, leading the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League with 96 points and winning league MVP with the Drummondville Voltigeurs. But the offence dried up when he arrived to Philadelphia. In his first training camp, Couturier took one look at a crowded roster that included Giroux, Voracek, Daniel Briere, Jaromir Jagr, Scott Hartnell and Wayne Simmonds and quickly realized that if he were going to make the team it would have to be in a defensive role.

“We had a great team my first year, a lot of talent up front and there wasn’t much room to crack the lineup,” he said. “It was the role that I was squeezed into. If I was going to play, that’s what I needed to play.”

Couturier, who twice finished in the top 10 in voting for the Selke Trophy as best defensive forward, embraced his two-way role. But he also became pigeonholed as a bottom-six forward who didn’t get many opportunities to showcase his offensive skill. That changed near the end of last season, when the Flyers had nothing to lose and increased his ice time by testing him with linemates who could make plays.

It worked. Couturier finished the season with only 34 points, but 17 of those came in the final 19 games.

“Now that I’m getting the opportunity to produce offensively and be one of the top two guys, it helps. It’s mentally a little easier going into a game knowing you’re getting four or five quality chances a night compared to when you’re playing 17, 18 minutes against a top line as more of a shutdown guy,” Couturier said. “You’re going to get one or two quality chances and if you don’t score, you’re going to feel the pressure.”

It’s a different kind of pressure now. But Couturier, who has the Flyers holding down a wild-card spot a month into the season, is enjoying every minute of it.

In the process, he’s showing that his name belongs with the others at the top of the scoring list.

surprising starts

Philadelphia’s Sean Couturier is not the only player who is off to a surprisingly fast start this season. Here are five players that you probably wished you had picked earlier in your NHL fantasy pool:

Vladislav Namestnikov, Tampa Bay
8 goals and 18 points in 17 games

Playing on a line with Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov is the main reason why the 24-year-old is already two goals away from reaching his total from last season.

Mika Zibanejad, NY Rangers
8 goals and 18 points in 17 games

The Rangers are on a five-game winning streak in part because of Zibanejad, who has eight points during that span and is on pace for his first 30-goal season.

Josh Bailey, NY Islanders
3 goals and 18 points in 15 games

It helps when you’re feeding passes to John Tavares, but Bailey was producing even when he was on a different line than the Isles captain.

Anthony Mantha, Detroit
8 goals and 16 points in 17 games

A year after breaking out with 17 goals, the 6-foot-5 Mantha is on his way to becoming one of the league’s premier power forwards.

Dustin Brown, Los Angeles
7 goals and 16 points in 16 games

After getting stripped of his captaincy, it looked like Brown was on his way out of Los Angeles. Instead, he’s off to the best start of his career.

mtraikos@postmedia.com